Digital Media & Today’s
Electronic News Release
MACVB Annual Conference
June 8, 2010

1. Declining viewers/readers
2

2. Fewer journalists
“Since a modern era peak of
56,400 reported in 2001,
newsroom jobs have decreased by
9,700.”
The American Society of News Editors 2009 Census
of Newsrooms
3

3. New news gathering
“I don’t use AP terminals and never
did in my work as a journalist in a
newsroom at two different
newspapers from the mid-1990s
through 2002. I go online ALL THE
TIME.”
Former New York Times Reporter Lisa Guernsey
4

Journalists use social
media to...
• Find sources
• Find story ideas
• Research individuals and orgs
• Keep up on issues and topics
• Disseminate their work
• Incorporate others’ social media
into their work
Society for New Communications Research, Best Practices Tip Sheet,
February 2010
5

Explosion of
social platforms
6

Explosion of
platform use
7

Online news
readership
•Six out of 10 Americans get news from the
Internet, survey says
•Online news is now more popular than
tipping point
newspapers or radio
•Pew Internet report also says people's
online news experience is a social,
interactive one
•Most people said they have from two to
five main news sources online
8

What Happened
To Media?
9

It Turned Social
10

What is social media?
Social media is another
communications strategy,
like advertising, PR and
interactive, except different.
11

Social media defined
Social media are platforms
that enable engagement with
and among stakeholders to
create endorsement and
evangelism for your brand.
12

Display ads
PAID MEDIA Paid search
(Brand Leverages) Sponsorships
Social Media Relations
Social CRM
Mobile Social Media
EARNED MEDIA
(Stakeholder OWNED MEDIA
Controls) (Brand Controls)
Blog posts Facebook Fanpage
News coverage Web site
Fan videos Twitter profile
13

Social media relations
• Reactive engagement
• Monitoring
• Engaging satisfied & dissatisfied
stakeholders
• Proactive engagement
• Social media releases & search
• Online newsrooms
• Blogger outreach & seeding
14

Social media relations
• Reactive engagement
• Monitoring
• Engaging satisfied & dissatisfied
stakeholders
• Proactive engagement
• Social media releases & search
• Online newsrooms
• Blogger outreach & seeding
15

VIDEO
Google video, Yahoo, Youtube,
Grouper, Break, Dailymotion,
Metacafe
BLOGS/
BOARDS
Boardreader, Google alerts,
Live, Technorati, Icerocket
TWITTER
Twemes, Tweetscan, Dittes,
Telewebber, Terraminds
DIY SERVICES

17

Build-A-Bear Workshop
“The good news is that
• Monitoring caught blog
shortly after postingstory on ZDNET.com
my piece I heard
from Dave Finnegan, Build-A-Bear’s "Chief
(1.4M visitors monthly)
InBearmation Officer." Kitschy executive
about privacy practices
designations aside, you’ve got to be impressed by a
• In one day, it spread to
company that responds so quickly, directly, and
other high traffic sites
receptively to criticism; I am, anyway.” The
(BoingBoing.net;
Consumerist)
• Sent a response directly to
Denise Howell, high profile
attorney/tech blogger
• Outreach resulted in a
positive follow-up blog
post
18

Social media relations
• Reactive engagement
• Monitoring
• Engaging satisfied & dissatisfied
stakeholders
• Proactive engagement
• Social media releases & search
• Online newsrooms
• Blogger outreach & seeding
19

“The idea behind the Social Media Release is not
about capitalizing on trends in order to take an archaic, dying
press release formula and present it to newsmakers in a fancy
new package labeled as ‘social media’...The IDEA is to strip
out all of the bullshit and hype from
traditional, mechanical and useless press releases and rebuild
it as a focused compilation of relevant facts, links, media and
to help readers write, tell,
a subscription feed
and share a story their way...”
Brian Solis, Blogger, Author
20

SOCIAL MEDIA PRESS RELEASE
TEMPLATE, VERSION 1.0
CONTACT Client contact Spokesperson Agency contact
INFORMATION: Phone #/skype Phone #/skype Phone #/skype
Email Email Email
IM address IM address IM address
Web site Blog/relevant post Web site
NEWS RELEASE HEADLINE
Subhead
CORE NEWS FACTS
! Bullet-points preferable
LINK & RSS FEED TO PURPOSE-BUILT DEL.ICIO.US PAGE
The purpose-built del.icio.us page offers hyperlinks (and PR annotation in
“notes” fields) to relevant historical, trend, market, product & competitive
content sources, providing context as-needed, and, on-going updates.
MP3 FILE OR GRAPHIC VIDEO
PHOTO
PODCAST LINK e.g., product e.g., brief
e.g., product
e.g., sound bytes schematic; product demo
picture, exec
by various market size by in-house
headshot, etc.
stakeholders graphs; logos expert
MORE MULTIMEDIA AVAILABLE BY REQUEST
e.g., “download white paper”
PRE-APPROVED QUOTES FROM CORPORATE EXECUTIVES, ANALYSTS,
CUSTOMERS AND/OR PARTNERS
Recommendation: no more than 2 quotes 5.3" per contact. The PR agency should have additional
quotes at-the-ready, “upon request,” for journalists who desire exclusive content. This provides
opportunity for Agency to add further value to interested media. 21
LINKS TO RELEVANT COVERAGE TO-DATE (OPTIONAL)
This empowers journalist to “take a different angle,” etc.

22

Social media release & search
23

PDF version Hot links to Forward to
of the other sites a friend
release
Podcast
interview w/
Embedded spokesperson
photos
Downloadable
files for news
sources, blogs,
etc.
Technorati
Tags
Downloadable
multi-media files
Social
Bookmarks

25

Search engine
optimization (SEO)
• Optimizing a release:
• Choose two to three keywords (ones
that consumers will be looking for)
• Important keywords must appear in the
headline (within the first 80
characters) and be echoed in the first
paragraph
• Use them consistently throughout the
document
• Additionally, they should link to
relevant areas of a company’s website
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Online newsroom
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Online newsrooms
31

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Blogger outreach & seeding
34

Blue Bunny sweeps
• Objectives:
• Develop and establish relationships
with respected mommy bloggers
• Drive awareness of our brand through
Mommy Bloggers
• Strategy: Mommy Bloggers create
and execute their own program
that features Blue Bunny as the
prize
35

Blue Bunny sweeps
Colleen
Katie
Kelcey
Christine
Lucretia
36

Classy Mommy
• Had readers enter by:
• Leaving a comment on her post
• Joining the Classy Mommy Facebook
fan page and leaving a comment on
post saying so
• RT the give away on Twitter and
include Classy Mommy
37

Output
• 6,000+ contest entrants = quality
brand engagement
• 20 winners (bloggers) who have
become brand advocates
• Blue Bunny Twitter followers grew
30%
38

Blogger outreach tips
• Know the bloggers you're working with and pitch to
them accordingly. This means knowing their
names, their children's names, ages and genders,
and the kinds of things they like and dislike.
• Be prepared to compensate bloggers for their time,
either with product in the case of a review, or with
cash if you're asking for consultation or
involvement in a large initiative.
• Bloggers don't want to receive press releases, but
they DO want to partner with companies and
provide value.
• Not all bloggers are alike. Some love doing product
reviews, others will only do them rarely or not at
all.
39

Blog with integrity
• Represents standards
that we actively
encourage our bloggers
to adhere to if they
choose to post about our
clients.
• Signatories agree to
disclose their material
relationships, policies
and business practices.
40

New FTC guidance
• Guide: an administrative
interpretation of the law.
• “...endorsements by
consumers, experts,
organizations, and
celebrities.”
• “...the post of a blogger
who receives cash or in-
kind payment to review
a product is considered
an endorsement.”
41

Encourage disclosure
“In accordance with FTC guidelines and
in the spirit of the Blog With Integrity
pledge [http://www.blogwithintegrity.com]
we encourage the bloggers we work with
to fully disclose that the products they are
reviewing and/or giving away were
provided to them at no charge by XXXXX.”
42

Resources
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Jeff Risley
VP, Social Media
risleyranch.blogs.com
twitter.com/risleyranch
jrisley@barkleyus.com